The present invention relates to a plasma addressed liquid crystal display and a method for its manufacture, and more particularly to a plasma addressed liquid crystal display and a method for its manufacture having an improved plasma addressed unit.
Conventional displays include vacuum fluorescent displays using low-speed electron beams, plasma displays using gas discharge, electroluminescence (EL) displays using electroluminescence effects liquid crystal displays (LCD) using electro-optical effects as well as a traditional cathode ray tubes using high-speed electron beams. The various displays are selectively adapted according to their characteristics since they have different functions and structures. Their common purpose is to form an image from an electrical image signal or a data signal.
Recently, a matrix-type display compositely constructed with the plasma discharge device and electro-optical device, which is one type of LCD, was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,149 by Tektronix. Referring to FIG. 1, the display is constructed such that a liquid crystal shutter 10 in which a plurality of striped data electrodes 14 are arranged in parallel, overlaps with a plasma addressing unit 20 in which a plurality of unit scan lines 21 in the form of grooves are arranged at right angles to striped data electrodes 14 of liquid crystal shutter 10. A background generator (not shown), usually an EL device or cold-cathode fluorescent lamp, is provided at the rear of the plasma addressing unit.
With reference to FIG. 2, liquid crystal shutter 10 has first and second transparent substrates 12 and 13 between which liquid crystal is filled. Striped data electrodes 14 are formed on the inner side of first substrate 12 which is the front substrate. Having a thickness of about 50 .mu.m, second substrate 13 of the two substrates plays a very important role in orienting the liquid crystal. Plasma addressing unit 20 has a plurality of scan lines 21 in the form of grooves on a third substrate 25 at right angles to the striped pixels. A pair of electrodes 22 and 23 are provided on either side of the bottom of each scan line 21. In this configuration, third substrate 25 is adhesively fixed to second substrate 13 of liquid crystal shutter 10 so that the grooves serving as scan lines 21 form closed discharge spaces in which discharge gas is filled.